Media gateway

Abstract

The invention concerns a method of providing a reconfiguration of a packet switching fabric plane and/or a source board of a media gateway, as well as a media gateway for executing this method. The media gateway comprises a set of packet switching fabric planes, a set of source boards and a set of destination boards. The set of source boards and the set of destination boards are connected via Ethernet trunks through a set of packet switching fabric planes. The media gateway detects failures of a packet switching fabric plane and/or a destination board. If it detects such failure, it determines the Ethernet media access control address of the concerned destination board. Then, it reassignes, depending on the MAC address type, the determined Ethernet medium access address to a spare packet switching fabric plane and/or a spare destination board.

1 . A method of providing a reconfiguration of a packet switching fabric plane and/or source boards of a media gateway, wherein a set of source boards and a set of destination boards of the media gateway are connected via Ethernet trunks through a set of packet switching fabric planes of the media gateway, the method comprising the steps of: detecting a failure of a packet switching fabric plane and/or a destination board of the media gateway; 
 determining the Ethernet media access control address of the concerned or faulty destination board; and    reassigning the determined Ethernet medium access address to a spare packet switching fabric plane and/or a spare destination board.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of applying an internal Ethernet address schema to the media gateway, the internal address schema using two or more different internal medium access control address types.    
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of applying an internal Ethernet address schema to the media gateway, the internal address schema using a dynamic medium access control address type specifying a dynamic path in terms of packet switching fabric planes and destination boards.    
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of applying an internal Ethernet address schema to the media gateway, the internal address schema using a static/dynamic medium access control address type specifying a path that is static in term of destination boards and dynamic in terms of packet switching fabric planes.    
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 3 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of applying an internal Ethernet address schema to the media gateway, the internal address schema having a static medium access control address type specifying a path that is static in terms of packet switching fabric planes and destination boards.    
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of assigning, in an initialisation phase, different Ethernet medium access control address types to different applications.    
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of assigning a dynamic medium access control address type to data path traffic, in particular RTP or VoIP traffic.    
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 6 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of assigning a static/dynamic medium access control address type to system internal active or standby card to card connections.    
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 6 , 
 wherein the method comprises the further step of assigning a static medium access control address type to system internal test traffic.    
   
   
       10 . A media gateway for a NGN communication network, in particular a VoIP gateway, the media gateway comprises a set of packet switching fabric planes, a set of source boards and a set of destination boards, wherein the set of source boards and the set of destination boards of the media gateway are connected via Ethernet trunks through the set of packet switching fabric planes, and wherein the media gateway further comprises a control unit for detecting failures of packet switching fabric planes of the set of packet switching fabric planes and/or failures of destination boards of the set of destination boards, determining the media access control address of a concerned or faulty destination board, and reassigning, in particular depending on the medium access control address type of the determined media access control address, the determined medium access control address to a spare packet switching plane and/or a spare destination board.